United pilots to use iPad for navigation

August 23, 2011

United Airlines said Tuesday it was replacing the hefty flight manuals and chart books its pilots have long used with 11,000 iPads carrying the same data.

United Airlines said Tuesday it was replacing the hefty flight manuals and chart books its pilots have long used with 11,000 iPads carrying the same data.

The 1.5 pound (0.7 kilogram) iPad will take the place of about 38 pounds (17 kilograms) of paper instructions, data and charts pilots have long used to help guide them, parent company United Continental Holdings said.

The popular tablet computer will carry the Mobile FliteDeck software app from Jeppesen, a Boeing subsidiary which provides navigation tools for air, sea and land.

"The paperless flight deck represents the next generation of flying," said Captain Fred Abbott, United's senior vice president of flight operations.

"The introduction of iPads ensures our pilots have essential and real-time information at their fingertips at all times throughout the flight."

It will be supplied to all pilots on United and Continental flights; the two carriers merged in 2010.

United is the second major US carrier to adopt the iPad as a key pilot flight aid.

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3 comments

Great idea, depend on the i-pad for vital data. They're really tossing the hard copies? As a former pilot and aerospace industry consultant I say this ia an idiotic decision. Nothing wrong with using a tablet for plates, but keep hard copies accessible!

its gotta be a joke. I cant see the FAA being stupid enough to allow airlines to run off of security vulnerable ipads. all youd do is make terrorism as simple as hacking an ipad and hooking into the oboard systems....if it is attached of course.

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